Sunday, August 5, 2012

Did You Hear About the Shooting?

One of the most striking things about shooting incidents in America…is how common they are. Another striking thing is how often the media fails to note the previous point, or to explore what that means—or what might be done about it.

Late last night, a gunman walked into a movie theater in a Denver suburb, killed 12 and injured 50. Two days earlier a gunman opened fire outside a bar in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in an incident in which at least 17 were hurt. These were not really so exceptional. Every year, about 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence, and every week, people calmly enter our schools, our workplaces, our leisure gathering spots and open fire on innocent bystanders.

Whenever we tweet or post about these, often the only people we hear from are those who say we need more guns not less. “If I had been there with my gun….” The problem, of course, is the public at large is being asked to arm everyone and trust that, while the rest of us cower, “the right people” will quickly dispatch “the wrong people” in the modern equivalent of the Shootout at the OK Corral. No mention of whether the teacher is supposed to be armed…when a nut walks into a preschool and starts firing away.

Given that there have been 125 Mass Killings since Columbine, you think some serious solutions would be mentioned, yet it seems that there is the consistent response of inaction, or worse, the loosening of restrictions which make it easier for these incidents to happen.

3 comments:

Of those 100,000, the death total is around 30,000. Of that number, many are suicides--something that the person chooses. Some are defensive shootings by good citizens. Some are the result of police action.

I'll leave the gun control people to calculate the percentages involved in these numbers. But do note that the only choice offered legally in a gun-free zone is to cower in fear. That doesn't work so well, no does it?

All those places you listed are gun free zones, which means victim rich zones which disarms someone like me. We need to do away with gun free zones. Gun free zones are painfully obvious to anyone that they dont work.